Essays in the history of eugenics

Robert A Peel (ed.), Essays in the history of eugenics, Proceedings of a conference organized by the Galton Institute, London, 1997, London, Galton Institute, 1998, pp. xv, 233, 5.00 (0-9504066-3-5).

The Eugenics Education Society, founded in 1907, and now named the Galton Institute, recently held a conference to commemorate its ninetieth anniversary. This volume brings together ten of the contributions, six from leading academic historians of the subject, and the others from members of the Institute or practitioners in fields which have been supported by it. Although there are, as ever, problems in attributing a single line of interpretation to such multi-authored efforts, some kind of common, "revisionist" perspective does seem to be emerging here: one in which the conservatism, the class basis, and the negative eugenic policies of the movement are de-emphasised and localized; and in which its longer term move towards an alliance with progressive social reformers and...